A collaborative Local Government approach for housing systems change & Inclusionary Zoning as a policy for affordable housing

In this interview with Aksel Bech, we are tackling housing unaffordability and the levers within legislation, policy, and at the local government level that are available to be able to create better outcomes for housing.

I reached out to Aksel because he and I care deeply about addressing this housing unaffordability problem in Aotearoa NZ and he is leading the way on housing reform in his local area through The Housing Czar, a housing advocacy initiative in the Waikato. (http://housingczar.nz/)

Aksel tells us about the Waikato Housing Initiative (WHI), which is a collaboration of all the different councils within that Waikato region, where they came together to create a local strategy around how to tackle the regional housing crisis. (https://www.waikatohousinginitiative.org/)

We talk about:

• the policy called inclusionary zoning, a policy that a local government can put into place to make land available for affordable housing.
• the Community Land Trust (CLT) as a means of creating housing to be perpetually affordable.
• the WHI and how that came to be, its goals, and what it has achieved to date.
• about Aksel's background growing up in Denmark and how that has influenced how he understands housing differently than it is currently done in Aotearoa, which has a more collective or community led approach to it. And why he thinks more in terms of neighbourhoods than just about housing. 

We want to make these models known to everyone so please have a listen and check out the Common Ground website for more resources, our newsletter, and to get in touch.

For more detailed information and explanation videos on Inclusionary Zoning, AKA Inclusionary Housing, you can visit this site: https://inclusionaryhousing.org/inclusionary-housing-explained/what-is-inclusionary-housing/

About Common Ground:  It is the consulting agency I started to provide professional services that enable more affordable, socially connected, resilient, and climate-adaptive housing and neighbourhood development and place-based living.

We work with local government, community housing providers,  for-purpose developers, and groups of people wishing to lead their own housing initiatives.

We provide services in housing strategy, in design and facilitation of meaningful community engagement, in research, in policy development, in training in new approaches to better housing outcomes,

We also provide services in Workplace Culture and Communication to create more cohesive and effective teams and workplaces.

Why work with Common Ground:

• We take a whole systems and innovative approach
• we have decades of experience in community and regenerative development,
• we have a compassionate work culture,
• we are aligned with the community engagement best practices of IAP2,
• our knowledge is research-based, and
• we work with a spirit of joy, creativity, and collaboration.

Visit our website at https://www.commonground.net.nz/ to learn more about our services, get the two reports—one on housing for women and another on the community land trust model.

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Get in touch with Zola directly at zola@commonground.net.nz